Firebird Festival

Tonight we attended the "Firebird Festival" for the first time ever in Phoenixville. It's an interesting event where essentially a giant Phoenix constructed of wood is lit on fire. We've heard about it for years but had never checked it out before. After dinner with our friends Josh and Allison (parents to Dyllan's friend Brady) we headed there to see what it was all about.

Dyllan and Brady hanging out in the strollers...






Starting to light the Phoenix

Big ball of fire....

Burning fast...the embers actually started to fall where we stood so we booked it out of there not long after this photo...
All in all another fun night and weekend!

Koziar's Christmas Village

A LOOK AT THE ENTIRE VILLAGE.....

Tonight we took Dyllan to Koziar's Christmas Village in Bernville. She was in awe of all the lights. Below she is saying "honk" and squeezing the snowman's nose...
"Oooooh" was Dyllan's favorite expression for the lights

Not totally sure about Rudolph

Mommy, Dyllan and Frosty (albeit, a somewhat freaky Frosty!)

Long Overdue

It has been so long since I posted anything that I'd be surprised if anyone is still following this blog. I'm so sorry to those of you who have been checking in with no updates. Life has been incredibly busy. I'm still getting a lot of freelance writing work. I have two great babysitters that come on a regular basis- one is a local college student and the other is a mom from my playgroup who brings her son with her which gives Dyllan a chance to play with someone her age for a while. My mom also continues to watch Dyllan at least one or two days a week. Joe is also keeping busy with work and also un-ending projects around the house. Our latest is updating the laundry room which Joe is doing an amazing job on. Dyllan is doing great and continues to amaze us every day. She's starting to talk up a storm and we love having funny little conversations with her now. Her vocabulary seems to expand daily. I keep her really busy with playgroups and local activities when I'm not working. We're in a gymnastics class at the Y and always going somewhere or doing something. She's an active kid and it's easier for both of us to keep her busy ;) I will try to be better at updating this as we move into a brand new year. Can't believe 2011 is almost over...

A Summer Update

It was brought to my attention this weekend that I'm quite behind on updating the blog. I definitely realized this...but as you'll see from the photos below it's been quite a busy summer! We've been keeping busy with weekend trips and other fun things. I'm including a random montage below but so far our summer has included four beach trips, two Please Touch Museum trips, and a lot of time spent with friends and family. We're very blessed! Each day we also continue to be amazed by how much Dyllan is learning. She's really starting to talk now. I was keeping track of all the words she said until recently when she now repeats almost anything. It's still not that clear, but she's really trying. She's still running everywhere and getting into everything- a very busy little girl. But she brings us joy each day and we're really loving it!

Beach Take 2

This weekend we headed down to Wildwood for the holiday. Dyllan did better all around with this second trip. She still didn't sleep great, but she enjoyed the rides and the ocean! It was a very busy holiday weekend. Before we left for the shore we did the Zoo and today we spent the day with Joe's family. I have more photos of those trips coming, but for now, here's the beach...

By far, this "Trucks" ride was Dyllan's favorite. She kept saying "truck...truck..."
Uncle Chris takes a turn on "Trucks" with Dyllan...

Aunt Kelly did the carousel with Dyllan

And back to the "Trucks" with Daddy

This parachute ride was a little scarier (higher and faster!) than we anticipated but Dyllan did great

Loving the sand!

Headed into the ocean

Daddy and Dyllan :)

Wildwood Days

Dyllan had her first trip to the beach for the 2011 summer season. It was a mini trip and just myself, Dyllan, and my parents headed down from Thurs morning through Friday night this past weekend. Still, we fit a ton in and Dyllan had a blast. I will admit she was a bit of a pain in the condo- it was like a crazy bird trying to get out of a cage!! I think she just didn't have enough space to run wild (and she is a wild girl these days...jumping on my furniture and getting into other trouble if I turn my head for just a few seconds). But at the beach she was in heaven-- miles of space for her to just RUN (and play in sand and water!). We missed having "Daddy" along but he was at the very special and important Relay for Life event supporting Heather.

I've included a few pics from our little trip...


Dyllan was pretty brave with the water, but the waves did make her uncertain at times

This shovel was her favorite beach toy

I was SO excited that Dyllan fell asleep during her normal "naptime" so I could read my Kindle for a while (I was worried with all the excitement we'd be skipping naptime!)

Filling a bucket was another favorite pasttime

My parents pushing Dyllan in the jogging stroller on the boardwalk. Not sure if you can tell from this photo but YES my dad does have a black eye...sorry, no juicy story there. It's a basketball injury!!

One thing about the trip that was revealing was that Dyllan was really scared of rides. With how crazy she is on the bouncy-bounces at Monkey Joe's and on my furniture, I thought she'd love rides. But they scared her a lot. Even this carousel ride with mommy was kinda scary for her...

A New Yard

Since having two enormous trees from our backyard removed (bye-bye tax return!), Joe has been working hard to try and get grass growing. That's included having 19 cubic yards of dirt delivered and hauled to the backyard on his own. Then came spreading grass seed and hay. That's where Dyllan thought she could help! I had just picked up a little wheelbarrow at a yard sale for a quarter (can't beat that!!) and Dyllan wanted to be just like Daddy. She filled it with hay and helped him spread it around. More importantly, she had lots of fun being Daddy's little helper...

Busy Busy...

I know it's been a while since I posted. Things have been crazy to say the least. Joe and I had the chance to get away for a little vacation to Leesburg, Virginia (aka "DC wine country"). It's a really pretty area that is packed with vineyards to explore. We stayed at a beautiful resort/spa and pampered ourselves a bit with some nice dinners, sleeping in, and even some time at the spa together. It was really nice to have some couple time, but of course we missed our baby girl. Our vacation did end a bit early when we got the call about Joe's dad having a heart attack. We headed straight to St Lukes Hospital from Virginia but were so glad we got to see him that same night. Joe wouldn't have rested easy until he saw his dad in person and saw he was okay for himself. We are SO grateful he's okay.

The following weekend- Memorial Wknd- was also packed. We took another trip up to visit Joe's dad and to let Dyllan spend some special time with her cousin Payton. And we took a trip to New Jersey to visit our good friends the Van Fleet's and their new baby, Keith Jr. There's no doubt we've had a lot to keep us busy....

A nice dinner in Virginia...no cutting up food into bite-sized pieces or having to order something Dyllan would "like too." Even so, we spent half our dinner talking about a precious little girl!


Cheers!! Enjoying a glass of house wine at Tarara Winery...

Cousins!! Dyllan and Payton playing in the pool together...

Loving the sprinkler too...

During our visit to NJ we took a nice little stroll to the park. Carissa pushed her new baby Keith while Dyllan pushed her own little doll stroller....

Out for a Ride

All is well here at the Getz household and we've really been enjoying this nice weather. Today we took a trip to the park and then went out to dinner for Mother's Day. Yesterday we went for a bike ride as Joe just recently bought a bike seat for Dyllan. She wasn't totally crazy about having to wear the helmet but got used to it. I snapped a few pictures the day Joe bought it and took her for a little test run around the neighborhood....


She looks like she's trying to hold on here...

But she got pretty comfortable with it pretty quickly

And here she's actually smiling and waving to me as they ride past!